Energy Standard Rookie Evgeniia Chikunova Wins ISL Debut (DAY 1 BEST STORIES)

2021 INTERNATIONAL SWIMMING LEAGUE – SEASON 3, MATCH 1

• Thursday, August 26 – Friday, August 27
• 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm EST (8:00 pm – 10:00 pm Local Time)
• Piscina Felice Scandone, Naples, Italy
• Short Course Meters (25m – SCM) Format
• ISL Season 3 Schedules, Start Times, and More
• Teams Competing: Energy Standard, Toronto Titans, DC Trident, Aqua Centurions

The Energy Standard coaching staff has proven through the first 2 seasons of the International Swimming League that they have the best understanding of the ISL format, and they proved that again on Thursday in Match 1.

The team’s top draft pick, Evgenia Chikunova, won the 200 breaststroke in match 1: her ISL debut.

She was the #9 draft pick in the ISL’s “rookie draft” for 2021, but of the four first-round picks competing in this meet, she’s the only swimmer who won her debut race. Arno Kamminga of Aqua Centurions finished 2nd in the men’s 200 breast (behind a surprising Tommy Cope); Kasia Wasick of Toronto finished 2nd in the women’s 50 free; and Ryan Hoffer of DC Trident finished 5th in the 50 free (21.64).

The 16-year old Chikunova first received global attention when at 14, she swam a 2:22 in the long course 200 breast and won the Russian National Championship in the event. There still isn’t a ton of data on her in short course because of her age, but the 200 has always been her better event. Her 100 has improved as she’s moved into her mid-teens, though, and she finished 4th in the finals of both the 100 and 200 breaststrokes at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Her winning 200 meter time wasn’t great on scale. She swam 2:19.21 – which is slower than any 200 breaststroke winning time in season 2, and slower than all but two times from season 1.

But this was a huge weakness for Energy Standard last season. They used Viktoria Gunes and Breeja Larson as their sole 200 breaststrokers, and they never finished better than 5th.

Finish place distribution, Energy Standard, season 2, Women’s 200 breaststroke:

• 5th – 1 time
• 6th – 5 times
• 7th – 3 times
• 8th – 3 times

That netted a total of 9 points across 6 meets last season after jackpots – including 0 points in the league Final, which hurt them bad.

Jessica Vall, the team’s #2 breaststroker, was 5th and scored 4 points. Including Jackpots, that means the team has already almost doubled their output in the event from the entire 2020 season.

• Last season, for the New York Breakers, Kasia Wasick was the league’s fastest 50 freestyler. That was owed largely to Martin Truijens leaving her off the team’s 400 free relay, which comes shortly before the 50 free. Toronto liked that strategy enough to repeat it, and not only did they still win the 400 free relay (being the first-ever team to beat Energy Standard in the women’s 400 free relay in league history), but they still had a fresh Wasick for the 50 free (she placed
• Swimmers who didn’t race the Olympics (Lisa Bratton, Jacob Pebley, Tommy Cope) had a fantastic meet. They’ve had weeks or months to wind up for this ISL season, whereas the Olympians have probably taken a training break since Tokyo.
• #2 overall draft pick Ryan Hoffer is a big exception to that narrative – he didn’t swim the 100 fly and was only 5th in the 50 free. He was actually outsplit by 200 butterflier Zach Harting on DC’s 400 free relay – Harting split 46.9, a great split for him, on the “B” relay, while Hoffer was 48.0, not a good split for him, on the “A” relay.
• Aqua is showing signs of life. There were some bad races early in the session, but between their breaststrokers and Chase Kalisz in the 400 IM, they were right in the battle at the conclusion of day 1. Reminder: Aqua has never finished in any position but last in any ISL meet in two seasons. With DC struggling (in spite of two event wins), it looks like that streak will end.
• The Toronto Titans men no-showed the “B” relay in the men’s 400 medley. It’s not the first time that has happened in ISL history, but is questionable strategy at the end of a session.
• Shane Ryan skipped the 100 back at the Olympics because of a shoulder injury that he said is worse during backstroke than freestyle (he still swam on Ireland’s 800 free relay). He showed no ill signs of that injury on Thursday, winning the 50 back by almost four-tenths of a second for his first win of the season. He won the 50 back in 4 of his 5 meets last season, but his swim on Thursday was better than all of them.
• Based on informal polling, our Twitter followers (who are, generally, more hardcore swim fans) did not think the 100 splits made the 400 frees any more engaging or interesting. Zane Grothe’s negative-split was sort of the anti-optimal way to race it, even if his fast close was exciting. I think there still needs to be work done on presentation of the splits to make it cool.

Day 1 Scoring

1. Energy Standard – 262.5
2. Aqua Centurions – 235
3. Toronto Titans – 233
4. DC Trident – 173.5